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I had a nice piece of King Salmon and my husband wanted a cream sauce. I was going to do something quick, but then looked to Julia Child. By no means a complicated recipe, but braising the fish with the chopped, sautéed vegetables in white wine and then using the braising liquid to make a cream sauce made for quite a gourmet, restaurant quality dish.

Though I revere Julia Child's memory, this is a very strange recipe. For one thing, she doesn't give a target weight for the wings, saying "six to nine" for 6 servings. Obviously, she had small wings in mind; mine were apparently cut from 20 lb turkeys left over from thanksgiving, and each would serve 1 1/2 people, at least. Thus, 40 minutes braising was far from enough; I used a Thermapen to check the temp to decide when to take them out of the oven, which ended up being 70 minutes. Most importantly, there is no way 2 cups of beans works for 4+ cups of liquid; you end up with a lake of liquid and an occasional bean here and there. Won't make again.

Used this recipe for Thanksgiving and it worked nicely. However, the roux was so thick following these proportions that there was no way it could come to a boil as instructed. Even so, the gravy thickened beautifully and we all really liked the wine flavor.

Made for book club--this was an easy dish to assemble ahead of time which was a plus! I caramelized the onions, sliced the potatoes, and assembled the layers two days out. Then the day before, I added the stock and baked the potatoes. At book club I simply reheated and they were perfect and maintained their crisp top layer. I used cheddar cheese rather than swiss, and instead of mixing dried herbs in with the stock, I sautéed fresh sage and rosemary with the potatoes as they caramelized. The result was delicious, just simple, perfect comfort food. I came home with a little less than a serving left so I know they were a hit!

I made this with the caraway seed option rather than cumin seed. I didn't have celery seed and substituted 1 T minced fresh celery leaf in its place. My Fuji apple was large rather than small. Otherwise, I followed the recipe to the letter. I thought it was very good but was quite surprised at the rave reviews it got at a neighborhood block party. I was concerned that they would find the caraway flavor strange. Instead, they kept going back for more and asking for the recipe. Everyone kept telling me it was the best coleslaw they'd ever had.
I would suggest using a large Fuji (sweet) apple. She calls for a small apple and doesn't say whether it's supposed to be sweet or sour. i think the sweet apple is the reason everyone liked it so much.

A little too onion-heavy for me, but otherwise, very nice. I didn't steam and slice the sausage; I squeezed it out of its casing and pan-fried it instead. I also substituted gruyere for the Swiss cheese which was very good. I think the 30 minute cook time is a little short and would increase by 10 minutes next time so that the crust could brown more.

Publishers Text

Julia Child's masterpiece teaches the essentials by demonstration from and for a lifetime of good cooking.

As Suzanne Hamlin wrote in the Daily News, Nobody doesn't need this book. It's Julia at her grandest, her most ebullient, her most accomplished. Wiser, more relaxed and more opinionated than ever, America's whisk-whirling mentor has given us a new Joy of Cooking - classic techniques approached with freewheeling style, accompanied by a fusillade of side notes and color photos. If you cooked everything in this book - soups to cookies - you'd be proud, learned, maybe healthy and certainly happy. What we don't know, Julia does. Don't let a child leave home without it.